The Rough Guide to Central America On a Budget (Travel Guide eBook)

Description

This new, fully updated edition of The Rough Guide to Central America on a Budget is the ultimate guide to the region, covering all seven Central American countries in depth with Rough Guides' unique tell-it-like-it-is style. Rough Guides' intrepid authors have climbed up Mayan monuments, braved chicken buses and hiked through jungle to give you advice on what to see, how to budget and when to splurge, while the language section gives you enough Spanish to make some new friends or simply order an ice-cold cerveza.

Whether you want to go wildlife-spotting in Costa Rica's cloudforests, try volcano-boarding in Nicaragua, feel insignificant among Guatemala's Maya citadels or even all of the above, The Rough Guide to Central America on a Budget has you covered.

Includes: Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Belize.

Informations

• Publié par: Apa Publications
• Date de parution: 02 novembre 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780241250570
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 48 Mo

Extrait

CONTENTS HOW TO USE INTRODUCTION Where to go When to go Author picks Ideas Itineraries BASICS Getting there Entry requirements Getting around Accommodation Health Culture and etiquette Work and study Crime and personal safety Travel essentials THE GUIDE 1. Belize 2. Costa Rica 3. El Salvador 4. Guatemala 5. Honduras 6. Nicaragua 7. Panama LANGUAGE MAPS AND SMALL PRINT How to Use How to Use Cover


HOW TO USE THIS ROUGH GUIDE EBOOK

This Rough Guide to Central America on a Budget is one of a new generation of informative andeasy-to-use travel-guide ebooks that guarantees you make the most of yourtrip. An essential tool for pre-trip planning, it also makes a great travelcompanion when you’re on the road.
From the table ofcontents , you can click straight to the main sections of the ebook.Start with the Introduction , whichgives you a flavour of Central America, with details of what to see, what not tomiss, itineraries and more – everything you need to get started. This isfollowed by Basics , with pre-departuretips and practical information, such as flight details and border crossings. The guide chapters offer comprehensive and in-depth coverage of each country, including highlights and full-colour maps featuring all the sights and listings.
Detailed area maps feature in the guide chaptersand are also listed in the dedicated mapsection , accessible from the table of contents. Depending on yourhardware, you can double-tap on the maps to see larger-scale versions, orselect different scales. There are also thumbnails below more detailed maps– in these cases, you can opt to “zoom left/top” or “zoom right/bottom” orview the full map. The screen-lock function on your device is recommendedwhen viewing enlarged maps. Make sure you have the latest software updates,too.
Throughout the guide, we’ve flagged up ourfavourite places - a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric café, a specialrestaurant - with the “author pick” icon . You can selectyour own favourites and create a personalized itinerary by bookmarking thesights, venues and activities that are of interest, giving you the quickestpossible access to everything you’ll need for your time away.

INTRODUCTION TO CENTRAL AMERICA
From Maya kings and Spanish conquistadors to runaway slaves andthrill-seeking surfers, Central America has tantalized adventurers for centuries.Today, with its exotic blend of volcano-studded landscapes, dazzling colonial towns,jungle-smothered relics and bone-white beaches, the region makes a tempting targetfor budget travellers; prices remain low and the sheer diversity of activities ishard to match. In the space of a day you could be snorkelling off a Caribbean reefor jaguar-spotting in lush tropical forest, before spending your evening samplinglocal rum and dancing the night away in some laidback surf town. Another day couldbe spent whitewater rafting, volcano hiking, and soothing your aches and pains inhot springs, followed by a home-cooked dinner of stuffed tacos, rice andbeans.
While the nations of Central America – with the notable exception of Belize –share a common Spanish heritage, their indigenous roots gofar deeper. Some of the greatest Mesoamerican ruins –Tikal, Caracol and Copán – are here, not in Mexico, and you’ll find traditions that can be traced back to the pre-Columbian era remainvibrant throughout the region, from the rich Maya culture of Guatemala to the Lencaof Honduras and Guna of Panama. Indeed, it’s the clash of cultures – primarilyindigenous, culinary tradition that stretches fromCaribbean creole to Maya-influenced Spanish-style cooking, while gorgeous colonial cities such as Antigua, León and Granada testify tothe intriguing Spanish-American culture that developed here from the sixteenthcentury onwards. Similarly, the region’s fiestas and religious beliefs mix various traditions – inGuatemala, the Maya folk saint Maximón is every bit as venerated as are his Catholiccounterparts at pilgrimage sites such as Esquipulas, where the Black Christ isrepresented by a miraculous crucifix carved by the celebrated artist Quirio Catañoin 1594.
  What often surprises travellers the most, however, is the region’s natural beauty . It may look insignificant on the map – at itsnarrowest point the isthmus squeezes to a mere 65km across – but Central America’sunique topography ensures there’s enough here to fill months of exploration. Crammedinto this small area, coral-fringed Caribbean beaches giveway to dense jungle that, in turn, yield to brooding volcanic highlands . Pounding Pacific surf lies within a short ride of tranquil national parks containingmulticoloured parrots, howler monkeys and tapirs.
  Now is a good time to visit. Central America was known for much of the twentiethcentury for its bitter civil wars, poverty and crime. Though crime in some areasremains high, today the whole region is free of war, and rapidly developingeconomies are slowly reducing levels of poverty. Infrastructure, communications andlife in general are improving as never before.
  While towering Maya ruins find their modern-day counterpart in theskyscraper-stacked skylines of metropolises such as PanamaCity, San Salvador and Guatemala City, costs, even in the cities, remain affordable,with plenty of budget accommodation options, cheap eats and attractions that chargeminimal entrance fees. Though Guatemala has the largest GDP, Costa Rica and Panamaare generally more expensive, with Nicaragua and Honduras the cheapestdestinations.
   Travelling from place to place in Central America remainseasy and won’t break the bank, either: a combination of the infamous “chicken buses”(repurposed US school buses), border-crossing international coaches and lanchas will get you wherever the fancy takes you.

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MONDAY MARKET, ANTIGUAGUATEMALA

Where to go
Relatively well set up for travellers, English-speaking Belize makes a good first stop; most travellers head to thecobalt-blue waters of the Caribbean cayes and atolls to dive the longest barrierreef in the Americas, or spend a few nights on the lookout for big cats in ajaguar reserve such as Cockscomb Basin , or howlermonkeys at the Community Baboon Sanctuary . Inland, San Ignacio is the perfect base for adventuresports and a visit to the spectacular Maya site at Caracol , while the best places for simply chilling on sandybeaches are Hopkins and Placencia . Seafood is always spectacular in Belize: and evenbudget travellers will find it within their means to dine like a king on freshlyboiled lobsters on Caye Caulker . Throughout thecountry, West Indian culture dominates – Belize is more like its Caribbeanisland cousins than its Latino neighbours to the south.
  You’ll need to dust off your Spanish across the border in Guatemala , which remains a backpacker favourite for good reason.Indigenous culture, mostly Maya, is at its strongest and most expressive here,with vibrant markets, arts and crafts, and locals wearing traditional costumehappily co-existing with travellers sipping the exceptional local coffee. Thereare stunning landscapes – laidback highland villages and the sky-scrapingvolcanoes of Lago de Atitlán – and jaw-droppinghistorical relics, from colonial Antigua to themesmerizing jungle-smothered Maya ruins of Tikal (easily accessible from Belize). The capital, GuatemalaCity , is Central America’s largest metropolis but not asintimidating as the hype suggests; its museums, restaurants and cache ofcolonial remnants are well worth a day or two of your time.
  While its world-class Pacific surf beaches are no secret, much of El Salvador is off the tourist trail: Central America’ssmallest nation may lack the colour and the indigenous markets of Guatemala, butit does have the coast, from El Tunco , which hasblossomed into a bona fide backpacker/surfer resort, to tranquil El Cuco , a turtle and pelican sanctuary. If you’re afterpeace and quiet, head for the artsy flower-filled villages and coffeeplantations of the Ruta de las Flores , or themagnificent rainforest of Bosque El Imposible . Foodiesshould make an effort to get to the feria gastronómica in Juayúa , a weekly market serving everything fromiguana and snake to Mexican ice cream. The relaxed city of Santa Ana makes an elegant stop-off, with the dazzling blue craterlake, Lago de Coatepeque , to explore nearby. Crammedwith low-slung Spanish architecture, Suchitoto is thebest place to soak up El Salvador’s colonial past, while the Ruta de Paz in the east leads to poignant memorials of thecountry’s bitter civil war, especially in bomb-ravaged Perquín and the massacre site at ElMozote . And don’t ignore the capital, SanSalvador – its economy is booming, and it offers lively markets,bars and cafés more akin to the Latino culture in Miami or Puerto Rico than therest of the region.
   Honduras is also changing, but at a far slower pace –enjoy it while you can. The initially chaotic Tegucigalpa is among the most visitor-friendly capitals in CentralAmerica, and one of the few to retain a rich cache of colonial churches,buildings and museums in its centre. To the west, the celebrated ruin of Copán (often visited from Guatemala) is another enchantingMaya site, rich in carvings. Even so, the Bay Islands are the main attraction in Honduras: the archetypal Caribbean dream of swayingpalms and powdery white sand, they also provide plenty of opportunities forwatersports on a budget. At the other end of the touri